The preview panel is of bad quality on XnViewMP v1.5.0 x64. Looks as if image was expended from a low resolution copy.
No such issue on XnView Classic, XnViewMP v1.45, or other software such as FastStone.
Those 2 screen shots were taken Out of the box with portable versions:
You can enlarge the image to really see the issue.
OS Windows 10 x64. Tested on a fresh installed VM with same OS, same issue.
Preview Panel
Moderators: helmut, XnTriq, xnview, Dreamer
Re: Preview Panel
Installed v1.4.5 this afternoon. (Not Portable, full install)
Downloaded XnViewMP-win-x64.zip, unzipped and launched from unzipped directory. Bug not here ! So started a fresh VM, unzippd in the VM and launched from unzipped directory. Bug still here ! So, seems it's indeed High zoom quality the culprit.
Anyways didn't change that myself, that's the setting from unzipped XnViewMP-win-x64.zip.
Downloaded XnViewMP-win-x64.zip, unzipped and launched from unzipped directory. Bug not here ! So started a fresh VM, unzippd in the VM and launched from unzipped directory. Bug still here ! So, seems it's indeed High zoom quality the culprit.
Anyways didn't change that myself, that's the setting from unzipped XnViewMP-win-x64.zip.
Re: Preview Panel
from 1.4.5, 1.5.0 keep 'Zoom out quality' but you need to not go to 1.4.5 after
Thanks to your detailed description I can reproduce the default setting problem.

Pierre.
Re: Preview Panel
This problem is supposed to be fixed in XnView MP 1.5.2. Please check and confirm the bug fix here.
Pierre.
Re: Preview Panel
Checked, fixed in v1.5.2. Thank you.